


Seeing and Being Seen.

by nightfalltwen



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Co-workers, Community: hp_nextgen_fest, Gen, Harry Potter Next Generation, Secret Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-15
Updated: 2017-11-15
Packaged: 2019-01-22 04:08:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12473140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightfalltwen/pseuds/nightfalltwen
Summary: Lucy thinks that her secrets are well hidden and that no one notices her.  But she's quite wrong about that.





	Seeing and Being Seen.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to the mods for running this fest. I meant for this fic to go in a whole different direction, but real life sort of mucked up everything. Why can't I just be paid to write fanfic? Adulting sucks. Lucy and Scorpius are not officially in a pairing in this fic. Friends/Coworkers/secret crushes etc etc and so on and so forth.

"Hey, gorgeous. How about you and I have drinks at _The Leaky_ after work?"

Lucy Weasley looked up from her salad, peering above the rims of her glasses, unable to stop the little twinge of hope that the question had been for her. But of course it hadn't. It never was. Instead Gavin Chang sidled up to her cousin Roxanne and perched on the edge of the long canteen table between the two of them, peering down at her with a cocky sort of smile and all too white teeth. 

Alright. So maybe his white smile wasn't necessarily a character flaw, but Lucy felt like she had to find _some_ kind of flaw.

Poking her fork into a piece of tomato, she moved it to a little side plate and scooted her chair over so that she wouldn't get bumped by Gavin's gesticulating. Of which he did a lot. A small smile crossed her face when she heard Roxy dismiss the advances and excuse herself from the conversation. Instantly his smile turned a bit sour and though Roxanne was out of earshot, Lucy heard him mutter an insult under his breath at her retreating form

Lucy wondered if he would have said such a thing if he'd realized who was listening.

Probably not.

People never seemed to notice Lucy. When she was young it didn't matter so much. It meant she could finish a book while the rest of the grandchildren were put to work de-gnoming Granny Weasley's garden or goaded into pickup games of Quidditch in the back garden. She liked being a little bit invisible in that regard and while she was never without a Christmas jumper from Granny, no one expected too much from her. It even made her chuckle on more than one occasion when the eyes skipped over where she was sitting and chose one of the boys to do the next chore.

As she grew older, this invisibility became a little more worrisome. At least to Lucy. As all the girls grew up (and out), she realized that boys skimmed over her spot at the table just as the adults' eyes had skimmed over her during the big meals. Gazes went directly to her various cousins. They didn't notice her the way they noticed Lily with her endlessly long legs and vibrant red hair. She had grown into a carbon copy of her mother. Or Dominique, whom people flocked to in a way that Lucy felt had little to do with her Veela mother and much more to do with Dom's coy smile and clever retorts. And Roxanne was a combination athletic and funny; everyone wanted to chat her up.

No one seemed to pay any attention to the quiet girl with round glasses and curly red hair.

Not even when she wanted them to notice her.

Never when she wished for it.

"Gonna eat those?" Scorpius plunked his tray onto the table next to her, not even waiting for her answer as he scooped the discarded tomatoes onto his plate before waving his fork towards one of the older canteen ladies. "That woman never gives me extra."

She waved a response with her hand and went back to her food.

When the hat had sorted her, Lucy had asked for Ravenclaw as the musty old chapeau had debated between the houses and wondering if the house of Lions needed yet another Weasley. But she'd asked. She'd asked and the hat had respected her choice. Ravenclaw was studious and quiet and she couldn't imagine not fitting in. But there were often times when she wished she'd asked to be challenged. To be sent to a house that would have perhaps made her more brave.

In her imaginings, though, Lucy was fierce. She was fiery and fierce like a book heroine.

She glanced sideways at Scorpius. He'd been her desk partner in Magical Transportation since she started the job, and three months in she wondered if he even knew her name beyond "Weasley". Not that she truly blamed him for that. The number of children with the last name of Weasley that attended Hogwarts during his time in school was a bit numerous. It was no surprise that people got confused. Even the teachers had a difficult time with multiple Weasleys in the same year when calling out for Mister or Miss Weasley got them the response of "which one?"

But in her imaginings, Lucy was the protagonist of her story and _everyone_ knew her name.

The fantasies all sort of started the same. Or at least followed a similar theme. She knew she oughtn't be thinking about her partner like this but what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him. He didn't need to know that she'd imagined walking up to him and throwing her arms around his broad shoulders, pressing her mouth to his. He didn't need to know that sometimes it was him that swept into the room, scooping her up and carrying her out to a waiting Portkey to some exotic destination. He didn't need to know that she sometimes delved into the more erotic and pictured a lift that was broken between two floors, wandering hands and being pressed against the wall, hands moving under her skirt, lips travelling up her neck to brush her ear.

"Are you using those?"

The sound inside her head was similar to a needle being dragged across an old record. Instantly, Lucy was back in the canteen, her fork hovering about halfway between her mouth and the plate. Scorpius had said something to her and she'd been lost in her own thoughts. A questioning look crossed his face and he pointed.

The salt and pepper at at her elbow. Of course. Her cheeks went hot and she blinked, sliding the little jars down the table.

No, Lucy, she told herself. He can't read minds. He's no legilimens.

Knowing that was the only thing that put her mind at ease. Scorpius Malfoy could not see what was in her head, thank goodness. She wasn't sure that she would ever get over the embarrassment if he could. Finishing her salad, she flicked her wand at the tray. The cleanup spells whisked the whole thing away to the dish bin on the other side of the room and she quietly excused herself from the table.

*

"Your Portkey will be available for pickup tomorrow. It will activate once you're at the tallest hill in the South Downs." Lucy folded the voucher for the old wizard on his way to Jerusalem. "I don't need to remind you about the Statute of Secrecy, do I?"

The wizard shook his head and patted the back of Lucy's hand as he took his voucher and left.

"How do you get through those so fast?" Scorpius said, sending a stack of files to the record department.

Lucy looked at him for a moment. "I don't chitchat."

A smile crossed his face; it made him look sly. "So you're saying that I do?"

"You do ask them a lot about their trips. It's not needed on the application."

"But don't you want to know? Don't you want to imagine you're going with them?" Scorpius picked up one of the applications she'd processed. "Like this one. The woman going to Mongolia. Didn't you want to know what she was going to do there? Where she'd be staying? What she'd be seeing?"

"I didn't ask," Lucy replied, taking the application back. "It wasn't important."

"But don't you like to imagine—"

"No." Lucy's tone was sharp. Her treasonous cheeks started to go warm again. "I do not."

Scorpius' eyebrows rose slightly and she could almost see the wheels start to creak into motion in his mind. "You don't imagine anything?"

"Not anything," she stressed, reaching for her handbag. "I just do my job. I like to do it, and I like to do it well. Imagining things doesn't help me do my job better. So I don't. I just do the job. I don't fantasize anything about anyplace or you or anyone."

Lies.

All lies.

Lying liar full of lies.

She tightened her grip on the handbag and fled the office before he could respond.

*

"Your mother might actually kill you this time, Lils," said Rose, pointing her wand.

Lucy could only see her cousins through the small slit between the bolt and the door to the toilet stall she was in. She perched on the closed seat, her feet up off the floor so that Rose and Lily wouldn't know she was on the other side of the door. She'd only needed a few moments to collect herself, but had frozen in place when her cousins came barging into the ladies. Though perhaps barging wasn't necessarily the right word. It was a public toilet after all.

"Did you get it?" Lily asked.

"It's covered as best as I can manage," Rose answered. "But the spell is going to wear off at some point, without warning, and someone might ask where you got the bite marks."

"And I'm not going to tell them. He's my boss. I don't want him sacked on my account." Lily's heels clacked on the tile floor as she moved from the stack of paper towelling to the mirror and then over to the bin. "I tried to find Lucy to do it; her charm work is top notch, but Scorpius said she'd left early."

Rose made a skeptical sort of noise. A tap came on. Lucy shifted on her seat and winced as the toilet made a small creak. Luckily the running water drowned out the sound. She could just see Rose's face through the door hinge. Her older cousin was running a finger down the side of her mouth. She straightened the navy blue robes of the Ministry Archive staff and then shifted out of Lucy's line of sight.

"She'd also scold you for being so reckless, Lils." Rose paused. "I mean... Dad says she's a lot like Uncle Percy."

Lily's throaty chuckle bounced off the walls. Even just the laughter made Lucy's jaw clench. She didn't like being gossiped about. She told herself she should just stand up and walk out of the stall and give both her cousins a dressing down. But she didn't. She sat where she was and fumed.

"In any case," Rose continued. "You'd deserve it. Even _I_ don't like knowing your secret. Someone's going to figure out that I know something and you _know_ I'm pants at lying."

"That's really why I wanted to ask Lucy. She's an expert at playing things close to the chest. No one knows her secrets. She'd not ask where the marks on my neck had come from and she wouldn't tell anyone she'd seen them."

Lucy let out a slow and silent breath, the anger that had flared up beginning to subside. She knew it was silly to be angry at her cousins. They loved her and the talk, that's all it was. Talk. And she knew that she would never tell them that she'd overheard their conversations. As Lily Luna had said, she kept things close and all of her secrets were under lock and key.

She heard the door to the ladies room open, though Rose and Lily were still talking.

"There's really just the one secret that she doesn't think anyone knows about," Rose pointed out.

Lucy's ears perked and her hands flew to her mouth. What secret?

"Scorpius?" she heard Lily ask.

"Obviously," Rose answered.

Another throaty laugh. "That's another reason I looked for her first. At least I could be assured that she wouldn't judge me for my indiscretions when she's sweet on her coworker."

Lucy jumped to her feet and threw herself out of the stall, only to see the main door closed. Her heart raced and she stood there, feet stuck to the floor as if they'd been hexed. Sucking in a breath, she looked at the mirror over one of the sinks. She almost didn't recognize herself; her eyes looked so wild and seemed to match the beating of her heart if that was even possible.

Stepping back into the stall, Lucy grabbed her handbag from the little shelf beside the toilet and hurried out of the room. Minutes later she found herself waiting at the wall of lifts, tapping her foot and waiting for one of the cars to arrive. Home. That's where she needed to go. Home and maybe a warm bath and maybe a glass of wine. She needed to figure out a way to get herself under control.

The lift dinged as it arrived, the doors sliding open and it took all her effort to not groan.

Scorpius smiled at her when she stepped into the car. "I thought you went home. Lily was by looking for you."

Lucy reached up and grabbed one of the straps hanging from the ceiling, staring at the department numbers as the lift whizzed through the ministry. "Yes. I know."

Suddenly the lift shuddered to a stop and Lucy turned to see Scorpius with his hand on the emergency switch. Her eyes went wide and she let go of the overhead strap, taking a step back from him. Did he know? Had her silly little fantasies been as obvious to him as it had been to her cousins? Good grief was he really a legilimens after all and she'd never known?!

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Hoping for a chance to talk without you scarpering off somewhere," he said, leaning against the control panel so she wouldn't be able to reach the switch. "You've been acting odd all day."

Lucy fiddled about with her handbag, wishing she was a little more like her sister. Molly would have had no problem hexing Scorpius and moving him out of the way. No one got in Molly's way. It's why she was such a good Beater. "How would you even know?"

Scorpius gave her an astonished look and gestured vaguely at nothing with a flick of his hand. "Uhhh.. because we work together every day and I'm actually quite observant when I want to be, Lucy."

Her mouth opened in surprise. Hadn't she just been thinking that he didn't even know her first name? It was always Weasley this and Weasley that when he was around the rest of the staff. Her thoughts spun. He knew her name. He also knew Lily's name, but that didn't seem to matter as much. Because he knew _her_ name. Without her having to prompt him.

"Breathe," Scorpius had his hands up, making calming gestures.

"It's just..."

"You didn't think I paid attention?" he asked, looking a little hurt.

"Don't do that," she huffed. "If you're a legilimens and you're reading my mind, just tell me now." Lucy put her hands on her hips. "Because I need to know if I have to die from embarrassment or at least transfer to a different department. I'm sorry I was acting strange. I had a lot on my mind, but if you're looking at all of that in my head then I don't suppose I have to tell you anything because it's all there for you to see."

"I'm not." Scorpius said. "And you don't. Have to die. Or transfer. In fact, I'd rather you didn't transfer. One, you're one of the best Portkey creators we have and two, I really don't want to be on Maggie Higgs' shift rotation again."

Lucy eyed him skeptically, her lips pressed together tightly. His shoulders dropped and he mumbled an apology for holding her up. Then he stepped back to the control panel and pressed the power button. The car lurched to life and her hand shot up to grab one of the straps as it began to descend to the right floor. As the door creaked open, Lucy took a step forward. She paused and turned, her hand against the opening to keep the lift from sliding closed behind her.

"You wouldn't lie about being a legilimens, would you?"

Scorpius smiled. "You keep asking that and I'm going to start wondering what you actually think about all day." He leaned forward, his voice lowering to an audible whisper. "I really don't mind if it's me."

The gate bumped against Lucy's hand wanting to close and suddenly words just bubbled up and were jumping out of her throat before she could stop them. "You're just going to have to live with the mystery," she said.

She let go of the door and stepped back, watching as the gate closed and the car started to move away.

"I'm taking that as a challenge, Ms Lucy Weasley," Scorpius called out as the lift moved further away. "Don't think that I won't."

Lucy smiled to herself and turned on her heel, heading for the Floo. Maybe this was better than her imagination. She'd have to wait and find out.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! You can show your appreciation for the author in a comment here or on [livejournal](https://hp-nextgen-fest.livejournal.com/119757.html).


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